Making Guests Feel Like They Belong

Hello guys. We're back with another episode of the Boostly podcast. This is the podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the trainings, but most importantly the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. So today we are have got another host in and we're going behind the host. We're going to find out what tools, what tactics they use within their business. They've got something very unique and very special to share and I'm excited to, to to dive into this today. What I really would love everybody watching either on the Facebook Live or listening in on the podcast to really be thinking about is about how we make our guests feel and some of the cool things that we can do to include everybody within our brand. And that's certainly some of the stuff we're going to dive into today. So hopefully you'll be able to get some some awesome tips for your own hospitality business and listen into the inspirational journey. So today we're going to welcome along Amy Corbett. She's from All Belong Co and it's worth going to check out their awesome website and yeah, excited to dive in. So without further ado, let's do it. Welcome along Amy.

Thank you. It's good to be here.

Thank you for joining us. So can you tell us a bit about your business? Where in the world do you host, what kind of model you use and anything sort of anything special you'd like to share about your business.

So we live in Lynchburg, Virginia here in the United States. We're kind of in the central region of Virginia at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. So very beautiful. We have about 25 short term rentals in the area. Some of them belong to us and then mostly we are a co hosting business. We have also, I'd say about currently about five other properties that are in other markets and other states that we are co hosts for as well. And so they're all like bunched in together to what we call the All Belong Collective.

That's cool, that's cool. And how long have you been doing it? Did it start with your own listing and then did you start to co host as time went on? How did that process come around?

Yeah, exactly. So we started, we had always done long term units and we kind of started renovating this historic home that overlooked the James river. And someone told me about this thing called Airbnb. So I'd never really thought of a short term, you know, idea got started similar to a lot of hosts out there. It just was like, oh, this really clicks and Had a blast hosting it brought together so many of just my passions and yeah, and it was like, this is what I want to do more of this. And then someone came along and said, hey, my friend does this thing where she does it for other people. And literally like mind blown, you know, because yeah, I, I couldn't imagine being able to set up other people's spaces to create these experiences for our guests. And so I just started posting kind of like, you know, what we were doing. I didn't even, I was just showing my work essentially. And once at that point, let's see, that was around 2017. So then the first, you know, the first client reached out and said, you know, I've got this farmhouse and it's got fresh. We were thinking we could give fresh eggs from our chickens to our guests and it's got a hot tub. Like do you think it could be a short term rental? And I came over, walked to the property and I said, I think you have a very special short term rental. And so that was the first one that I helped the client create.

Nice, nice. So it sort of naturally came about and one thing I want to draw everyone's attention to there and we talk about it a lot here at Boostly is document your journey. I was talking to a host earlier on today about how important it is to just document, talk about what you're doing, talk about what you enjoy as well because you mentioned about all the stuff that you enjoy about the hospitality journey and people will naturally be drawn to that. And again for, for anybody listening, if you do go out, go and check out all belong co you can clearly see the purposefulness of your curation of, of the units of the. The message that you kind of, kind of send out there. Which is important because as co hosts and management there's a lot of choice for, for homeowners, for real estate owners to go with and they'll want to see that public sort of domain, that you're in the public domain and also that you're a professional at what you do, which is cool. And that all starts from like you say, just taking on the first one and going from there. So just remind us again, how many are you up to now and whereabouts are those units based? I know you mentioned some are out of. Out of area.

Yeah. So we have around 30. I tend to lose count because they're always coming on and, and so forth. So about 25 are in the Lynchburg area. So some would be in the downtown and some would be up towards the mountains. But Then we're also in markets like Williamsburg, Virginia, Cape Charles, Virginia, which is a bay town. And then we're up in South Carolina. We have a lake house in Ohio, and we have one just outside of Memphis as well.

That's cool. That's cool. So quite. Quite a widespread area, and I definitely want to dive into that in just a moment. But before we do, I'd love to find out. Take me back. Before you got started in hospitality, what. What did you do in a formal life and what gave you this. This hospitality bug, I guess.

Yeah. So we were. My husband and I did 17 years of campus ministry, so serving college students and just loving on them while they were at school. So that's what we were here. We've been doing it. Yeah. For 17 years. There was a time, I think you have to know about us as well. Our family has a very interesting story to it. We are not your typical. Your typical family. So our two children are ours through adoption. We went through years of infertility. Our daughter actually lost all of her hair at age 2. And so she is a teenage girl now in America with no hair and rocking it. And, you know, just, we love to stand out and be different, and that's been a part of our journey. Our son is 10 years old and he is African American. So, you know, you can't help but notice, notice us wherever we go. So it's through our family's journey really, in ministry and just the things that have come along, we have really had to press into what does it look like to be different and to be not only okay with that, but, yeah, let's rock it. Let's embrace standing out and find the strengths in that. And. And that has only carried over as we can talk about into our hosting business. So there was a time where here in the US Several years of political, also political and racial climate, the climate was not so good here. And it did start to impact our environment, like in our church and our family. And it became very clear that we did not feel like we belonged to. And that was so such a painful time for us to find spaces where all of us with all of our unique differences could feel at home, could feel a part of this community. And it was a very painful goodbye that we stepped down and said, you know, we just, it's. It's time. It's not for us. And we really didn't have a what's next plan. So that's where that step out, it was like, you know, a little bit of skydiving and we Just knew it was time. Meanwhile, we had, you know, we had this first short term rental going and I was helping that, that farmhouse client that I told you about. And that was going to be our kind of like, this is what'll keep us going for a year while we figure it out and maybe we'll look for another ministry opportunity. But the longer that we were sharing our journey and what I was doing, I was literally painting walls at that farmhouse myself to get it staged and ready. Then more and more people started asking for our help and it just grew to the point where this wasn't going to be just something that we did as a side gig. It was something that really was like, you mean we can now create these spaces where we set the tone that everyone can belong.

I love that, I love that. And first of all, wow, you know, I feel inspired and I'm sure people listening will do as well and just, you know, the bravery, the inspiration and also the feeling that you've gone through a situation where you haven't felt where you belong and now you've created something where everybody is, is included. You know, there's a lot of inclusion. There's. You're making places where people can go and spend time feel included, but also you're enjoying doing that as well. That hospitality has, has come to the kind of rescue of yourself as well as your clients now who can come and stay. So definitely one that is a story that you definitely should, should share and just make it part of, of the overall feeling. You know, certainly it's. You remind me of some of the stories which could go into people like Jody Sterling's Hospitable Hosts book and that side of things.

Well, that's funny that you mentioned that because I'm actually, yes, I'm going to be one of the contributing authors for that book.

I'm so pleased, I'm so pleased because that is that this is the great and varying thing about hospitality is you meet people who, they tend to fall into hospitality. You know, this doesn't tend to be something which is, is they set out to do, but often as soon as they do fall into it, they absolutely love the opportunities and the creativity that you've got there. So let's talk more about. As the business has grown, you're now up to over or around 30 sort of units that you're managing. There'll be people listening to this who are inspired and thinking, well, you know, I've got one at the moment. How do you make that transition from just one or two to Getting up to where you are now, Amy, what would you say is some of the challenges along the way that you've had and how did you overcome them?

Yeah, I mean that is a huge process because each, at each tier or level of frustration, you know, I would start to drop balls as, you know, you get to a certain level and you just can't hold it together. And that was always my sign of something's gotta give, something's gotta change. I don't have a business background per se, but I'm learning that I think I was an entrepreneur at always at heart. But that's when I've had to then, you know, get help. And I'm really big now on putting aces in their places, finding the people who are can really excel in the areas that, that I can't. And so as we hit, you know, I would say around the seven property, eight property mark, that's when I probably brought in my first, what I call co host to handle the guest messaging. And that was a hard thing to turn over because I'm extremely, you know, I care so much about the verbiage that we use with our guests and wanting to create this tone of belonging and inclusivity. So that's something that I've worked a lot with on our team.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct Blueprint, are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds. You can grab both of those books right now. The foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint. And then for 101 marketing tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon now. Just type in Book Direct Playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side.

What would you say? We'll, we'll mix it up a little bit. Obviously you've got 30, 30 places and we will dive into the team. You've got 30 places. Which one would you say is the fun or one that particularly sticks out as one of the ones in the collection that you like to like to discuss?

Yes. I'm so excited because one of our most recent ones is the most unique. It's our personal short term rental. So we took a vintage train caboose. So I don't know, not everyone seems to know these days what a caboose is, but it's like the little red train car at the end of the long, you know, train and we renovated it and it sits overlooking the James river near downtown Lynchburg. And it's. Yeah, it's now a thriving short term rental.

That's cool. That is wow. That's got the wow factor. And it's probably. Would that fall under the OMG category and, or unique spaces?

It should. And you know, it has not yet. I don't think Airbnb has quite discovered that it's there. But I'm waiting. Yes.

The benefits of direct booking is you can promote it as a wow space in general and you're going to get lots of, you know, lots of people inquiring in that. That's really cool. So let's dive more into the team that has got you here. You mentioned that on those early days, you were the one painting, you were the one setting up the unit. Who's on your team now and how do they help you?

Yeah. So we are now up to having four co hosts. One of them is our head of hospitality. She kind of runs the group of co hosts. The two are employed, two are contracted workers and then we've got a maintenance team. My husband kind of heads up the maintenance portion of the business and also does some of the finances. We've got a bookkeeper. I just brought on a professional revenue manager to our, our team part time. So as we've grown, you know. Oh, and of course cleaning teams, we, we contract out and work closely with three or four cleaning teams.

Cool. And what would you say has been the. If you could go back to the start, obviously there's been five years, six years now since, since the start. What advice would you have for yourself if you could go back and tell yourself, you know, just one or two pieces of advice that could really help you along your journey?

Oh, man. I think I would tell myself it's okay to be different, you know, stand out. Go back to your listings and think why should someone, why would someone want to book your place and make that super clear? I think that has just been this, this, like I said, a life struggle that's, that can bleed over into our hospitality business. And now that's my, my biggest passion is don't look at everyone else's listing and think that yours needs to look just like that. It's okay to be different. And guests will, will revel in, in the differences that you bring.

There's, there's a fantastic book called get different and is, is so important and that'd be a great one for the listeners to go and check out. Because by being different, you stand out. And Mark Simpson himself says, hey, when everyone else zigs, you zag. You know, purposely be different. I actually had some other Fabian Miler, who is a interior decorator was talking about one of the things you can do is to go on to the listings in your local area and see what their internal decor is and purposely cross off those colors, the ones that you see time and time again, cross those ones out, because they are not the ones that you want to be put in, in your listing or on your photographs. And I thought that was just such a good point, that it's such an easy thing to do when you're getting started to go off and do that.

That's great. Like, I've never seen this before. Well, good. Then. Then go with that.

Yeah. And especially a caboose, as you call. I mean, I've not had the term caboose, so thank you for. For sharing it with us. And, and the fact that it's so different. You know, these are the things not everybody listening to. This is going to have, you know, things which are that different. But you still. The amenities that you put in or the amenities you put in the. The decor, you can make it different. And the one thing that we've all got, which is very different, and this is the feel I get from. From this podcast, is that you can put your personality, you can put your core message, your values within the listing and even within the brand. So the. The name. We Belong is it so all. All Belong. All Belong is. Is awesome. How did that. So that came about because of the situation and the struggle that you've had. And now you've got your own website, I see.

Yes, yes, we do. And actually the next project that we're working on. I love what you just said about. It's good and okay to put yourself into your projects. The one that we're working on right now is definitely kind of from our family's story and our heart. We are renovating a historic home here near downtown as well, Downtown Lynchburg. And we're going to call it the dream home. And the reason being we want it to be focused around Martin Luther King Jr. And the Civil rights era. And, you know, I'm working with some of the black businesses here in. In our community. We want part of the proceeds to give back to support the black businesses. And like, we want the hair care products to not always be those that cater to white hair. So I want to create spaces where truly all belong. And so I'm really Excited about what that space will bring to a different clientele.

I love that and especially the message of inclusion in general, but also the fact that you're going out there and doing something for the community and communities. Do you know what I mean? It is, it's awesome from, from that side of things. And that's when our businesses as hospitality owners take on a, A meaning, a bigger meaning. You know, yes, it covers the, the, the income, but then you're actually doing something which is bigger than ourselves, bigger than the business, which is, is so important. So I absolutely love that. Let's, let's move on then and talk about tech within your business. I'd love to know if there's any tech that helps you run your business and if so, how.

Yeah, so we are using the first thing that I got was turnover BNB for our cleaning. Yeah. To schedule cleanings because that is always a big headache. We are using a property management software. I bought it when it was called your porter, but it is now guesty for Host. I think I'm kind of like grandfathered in. I think they're kind of advertising guesty for Host as being just one to three. Three properties. And we're still kind of, we're still there. But I am also open and researching other PMS softwares.

That's cool. And just talking about turnover bnb, when did you find within your business that you needed that? Was that at one unit? Was that 10 units? When, when did you find that was something which could help your business? Because there'll be people listening, thinking, well, you know, I've only got the one on the side or there'll be property managers with, with many more. But when did you find was the right time within your business for that software?

It was really early on. It was probably the first time I, when I wanted to stop being the cleaner at first cleaner. Because that communication just to back the back and forth of, you know, oh, they want a late checkout or, oh, all of these, these things. It just. I needed something to, to cut that down and make it seamless.

That's cool. That's cool. And for anyone listening who isn't Familiar with turnover BnB, this is a great piece of software which really just takes the hassle, doesn't it, out of your cleaning and also maintenance jobs. It talks to your, your PMS and also allows things to be a lot more automated so you can have lists for your cleaners. You can have the schedule as soon as somebody books your cleaners are automatically notified. So all that cool Stuff just to help your along with your business.

Yeah, my favorite feature of it is actually that we can automate payments to the cleaners from bank accounts of each of our clients, our homeowners, so they don't have, we don't have the worry of how do the cleaners get paid. It's all just automated for us.

Nice, nice. That is great, isn't it? And you mentioned your PMS which was your porter, which Guesty came in and bought and renamed it Guesty for Hosts, which that's really, really popular, especially for people with one to three properties. But as you've just said yourself, you know you've got 30 units with on it as well. So there's a lot of people out there who are worried about picking the right pms. But I always say this to people, is that ultimately just pick one and that'll allow you to grow to the size you need to grow. And then as you've mentioned, you're looking around at pmss but it's one of those things which you'll know when is the right time. At the end of the day any of them will get you started. And the quicker that people take action, find a PMS go and just get the first one, get used to hosting and that side of things, the quicker you'll know when to change in the future and at the right time. And people worry, I think overanalyze sometimes. Aren't we guilty of that side of things?

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now we can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O o s t l y.co.uk call and booking an appointment with one of our sales team.

Is there any other pieces of tech you use in your business and if not we'll move on to whereabouts you advertise for your places.

Yeah, we use things like Google Voice for our business phone number for whichever co host is on. All of our phones do ring but it is free so I'm still pretty frugal and budget minded with our expenses. We also like to use Asana for organizing tasks for our team members and who's handling what. So I think, I think that's the majority. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but.

No, that's cool. I mean there's some good ones there and at the end of the day, you know, sometimes businesses can be quite tech heavy. You don't necessarily need to be. One thing I would highly recommend for anyone listening is to make sure you check out PMS's. I've had one since one unit. And they just make your life so much easier that you're. They, they just allow you to grow, don't they? Which is cool.

Yes, yes.

So where do you advertise your, your properties? Is it on the main OTAs? And we've mentioned you've got the direct book and website and what do you think it is that appeals to your guests or your properties?

Yeah, so I also should mention that we use statefi as as part of our collective and what that does is when a guest checks in, they book, they come check in. They might book on the OTAs, they might already know and book direct, but they come in, they open their computer, they're trying to log in and then a beautiful picture of their place shows up on the screen and it welcomes them. And for complimentary WI fi, you know, they can just enter their email address. So it allows us as a company to collect their email addresses. Once they enter their information, there is just a plain text email that comes in from me automated that is just a really like hey, I hope you're settling in well. And this is, you know, we're just so happy to have you kind of want to set that tone of belonging. And also during that email we, you know, let them know about our next time book direct. And here's a promo code for that will work for any of our properties. So it's kind of a benefit for our homeowners to be a part of our collective because they are then getting kind of this cross marketing when someone stays at any one of our 30 properties that you know they're, they're going to then be able to, their property would be able to be seen.

It's a really good point just having people's emails in general because it's number one thing which people say, well, you know, why am I collecting people's emails? And especially, I mean I think it matters if you've got one property but especially as you're a property co host and as a manager, it just means that you can share all of the properties. And because all of your properties are a similar feel in terms of your, your branding and you know what guests would expect when they come and stay with you will be very similar. Although the property will be different. The host, the messages, the journey for them will be very similar. So by having an email list that you're collecting these, these emails from all the guests, not just the lead booker, but using things like Stay Fi, which if you're listening to this and you've not heard of Stay Fi, I'll be shocked if people haven't heard of StayFi. But it is because, because they're very good at marketing. But it's basically an app which. Sorry, it's a software which plugs into your existing router and it allows you to collect every single guest that stays. So if you've got a Property of say 14 people, it will collect all 14 email addresses if they choose to use the Wi Fi and then you can remarket to all 14 of those instead of just the lead booker. So and then share, you know, the other properties and all the cool stuff that you do. So yeah, that's a really good point that you've made there. So I guess moving on from that, what top tips would you have for hosts listening? If you just say generally the top tips that you love to that you'd say these can be anything from operational or to more marketing or anything you'd like to share at all.

Yeah, so my, my one of them would be to set boundaries. I think that's been hard for me in hosting is a lot of us that come to the hospitality business are just really nice people and we want to do everything we can to be nice to people. But there is also, you know, it goes both ways. You're a business owner now and so it's really important to set boundaries, put them down to paper right now, now that we're up to a larger team. You know, I have a training course for our co host but I have not put it on paper and up to this point and so we are, we are like knocking those things out because as we continue to grow it's important that all these different situations come up and there are some times where as a brand, you know, you would imagine is all belong. We want to be very welcoming and reasonable and kind but there's also just going to be policies that we have in place as well. Well, so you definitely anything you're going to do more than one time, I've heard, needs to be on paper. Anything in your business that is repetitive, get it down, put it into a training video. I know Loom is a website a lot of people are using, but get those down on paper.

That's awesome. Yeah. And there is, it's just such a good piece of advice to do. There is also. Here's one for everybody listening, which I'm just gonna find out the name of it. There's a software, an AI. Obviously, AI is very popular this year in 2023. And there's a software called Tango Us. Basically, if you go to Tango Us and it'll allow you to record steps very easily. So you've got videos like Loom which allow you to do it. However, what this does is effectively you're clicking it step by step so it actually then documents the process, which is cool. So another top thing to do for hosts, but these are really good bits of advice and as we come to the end of these sort of behind the host podcast, we just love to ask a couple of quick fire, fun, more light hearted sort of questions. So the first question for yourself, Amy, that I'd have is, what was your last impulse buy?

Oh, gosh, my last impulse buy. Well, it is a secret, but I will let it out here, here for you guys. I bought a vintage grain bin and we are going to be like making that into our next tiny home short term rental on it, on a whim.

Nice, nice. That is a. That is a big impulse buy, but that is amazing to make a wow space out of a grain. I'm thinking it's like one of the silo type type things. Is that what it is?

The tall ones? But yeah, it's 18ft wide. 18ft tall.

Oh, that's gonna be cool. I'm excited. And definitely you'll have to let us know how that goes.

Yeah.

Would you rather have more time or more money?

Can I be honest right now? I'd take more money.

Fair enough. Let's go. If you had to give one piece of advice to your previous boss, what would it be and why?

Oh, here's what I would say. You need to care about your people more than you care about your institution.

Love it. Love it. Yeah. Very, very on point as well. So. And lastly, if you was to invite one celebrity to dinner, who would it be?

Oh my gosh. Honestly, it would be a cross between maybe Barack Obama and. And Michelle would have to come or Bono.

Two different ends the scale all along, you know. That's cool. You're a big U2 fan then.

Yes, we are.

Yes. Nice. Cool. So as we come to the end, one question we always Ask is, is there a mantra or a saying that really resonates with you?

Yes. So I've got a really meaningful one and I've got kind of a funny one. If I can say them real quick.

Go for it.

I'll start with the funny one because it's just something that I think has to be in all of our brains is if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. If it's not a hell yes, say no. That has gotten me to stay on my journey when everything else comes my way. And then what I have here on my dry erase board is all big things come from small beginnings. Which is Atomic Habits, which is a great, great read. Just to keep in mind, you know, we're building something big. One, one thing at a time.

Love it. James Clear. Atomic Habits is, is such a fantastic read and thank you for, for sharing today. So if people wanted to come and find out more, either to follow you on your socials or to check out the website, where can they do so.

Yeah, you can go to All Belong Dot Co. So we are All Belong Co. But that's our website, All Belong Co. And that's also our Instagram handle that those would be our, our main places. We're on Facebook and. And I just started TikTok but don't know what I'm doing. My teenager needs to, to help me out here.

That's cool. That's cool. Well, thank you so much. I'm sure especially that the message I've got from this podcast is about creating, inclusion, creating, putting yourself into the business, you know, and your, your core reasons why, and reaching out to the community. And I love what you're doing there. So I'm excited to read more in your chapter from Hospitable Hosts when, when that comes about. And yeah, thank you again, Amy, for coming on. Was there anything I missed or any final thoughts before we bring it to a close?

No, I think you hit on everything. Leanne, this was awesome. It was great to be here.

Awesome. Thank you very much. And thank you too. If you're listening to the Boostly podcast, either on the Facebook page or on the podcast, we know there's a lot of places you can put the attention and we really thank you for putting it with us here at Boostly. So thanks very much. We'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.